Patch 1.3 is out...

[Bonzer]

will i ever be able to attack a castle gate directly with my creature stacks?

Apparantly the Firewall spell has an effect on this, and can damage the gates.

[Panda Tar]

i doubt it, it is a feature of the game, and that's the catapults job

That's bad, indeed. Once you destroy enemy's catapult, will they continue to flee, ending with a possible nice battle? I think that they could attack the walls once catapult is destroyed, but with a very reduced damage, of course.

Owh, and the balance of the spell casting units? Are they still strong at the beginning and appalling after gathering far many?

And I'd rather like leveling up a bit easier after level 30, making it possible to reach 70-99 as usual games, since it is not a great change reaching another level after a while, but it can be if you happen to level-up more and faster. Having this 40 seems too few...although, reaching that number becomes almost like a dream depending on the map. If you have to witch huts, you can just dream about your ultimate skill then.

[Kalah]

The Celestial Heavens' Downloads page has now been updated to include the latest patch. A seperate Patch 1.3 page, listing the attributes and download locations of it has also been created.

I am also putting out some of these patches (EU, EU Ce, US) out for sharing via my filesharing program Shareaza under names like "HoMM5_1.3_EU", for those of you with dialup who want to download in stages.

[tumorbane]

What was the "remote control perk?"

[DaemianLucifer]

Im really confused now.Why are these things we downa clledpatches?Patches usually just fixbugs and tweak the features of game bit.These things completelly rebalance the game.Honestly,its like v1.0 is alpha,1.1 and 1.2 were the beta,and 1.3 is the final product.And we all payed for the alha version of the game.Some very interesting game developing policy never seen before.

[Kalah]

You're saying patches should not tweak the balances in a game? I'm afraid I don't agree with you there...

[Braxen]

Im really confused now.Why are these things we downa clledpatches?Patches usually just fixbugs and tweak the features of game bit.These things completelly rebalance the game.Honestly,its like v1.0 is alpha,1.1 and 1.2 were the beta,and 1.3 is the final product.And we all payed for the alha version of the game.Some very interesting game developing policy never seen before.

But you have a (what you call) full product...and you´ve only had to pay once, right?

Do you seriously think it´s possible to make a "perfect" game upon release? And you can´t seriously think that version 1.0 was like an Alpha-version??

Yes, there were some issues with the first version released, but a game this complex would probably be impossible to get 100% right the first time. Unless of course you would have liked to wait another what, 6 months?

[ThunderTitan]

"And you can´t seriously think that version 1.0 was like an Alpha-version??"

You're right, the real apha only had one map and one faction to play with... and a cute Isabel portrait. Those are some huge diferences....

[DaemianLucifer]

You're saying patches should not tweak the balances in a game? I'm afraid I don't agree with you there...

Tweaking is good.Complete rebalancing is not.

Do you seriously think it´s possible to make a "perfect" game upon release? And you can´t seriously think that version 1.0 was like an Alpha-version??

Yes, there were some issues with the first version released, but a game this complex would probably be impossible to get 100% right the first time. Unless of course you would have liked to wait another what, 6 months?

Ok,this is sooo untrue.Once upon a time there was no fast internet in more than 50% of housholds and the companies had to release their games finished,because there was no patching.And I didnt ask for 100% of a game of....ugh,this complex sounds soo....but Ill go with it.But 85% is the minimum it should go.You want games that were near perfect when they came out?Fine:heroes 1 and 2,civ 1 and 2,galciv,mortal kombat 1 and 2,M&M1 through....I dont know,but lets say 6,Starcraft,diablo,warcraft 1 and 2,dungeon keeper,MOO 2.....All of those games were lets say at least 95% done when they came out,and if patching was extensive then(excluding galciv,which came out really well done,and improved significantly through patches),these games would reach 99,99% perfection,like SC did.Heroes came just some 60%-70% finished.I mean look at the scale of the changes in the patches.They change the game completely,they dont just tweak it.So,the new trend,I gues,is to sell version 0.1 and then upgrade it the next 3 or 4 years through patches?*sigh*!I would gladly wait these 5 months more on HV.It disappointed me very much in its innitial state,and my only hope is that expansion makes it better.If it came out now,it would suprise me pleasantly,perhaps,instead of just proving my fears I had during the development stage.

[Shuyssar]

The file is too big...
Is there any other way to get the editor? I want it NOW!!!

[Jolly Joker]

Actually this is something I find rather cool. They are rebalancing things and they are going for original solutions. War Machines is a good example; they will make that skill even stronger with the addon because three new spells wills summon things that will be War Machines for game purposes.
First look and play shows that the resource balancing not only rebalances the game - it CHANGES the pace of the game. Completely.
To do this requires guts. However, most importantly it shows
that Nival will do whatever is necessary to make this game a superior game!
Think about it. They obviously have NO problems to change things completely. Look at the Ghosts from 8 HPs up to SIXTEEN. I mean, hell, I'd have guessed 12. But 16, that's massive. Resource demands, the same. They don't care for how this looks (guys, what did you think with version 1.0???), they just do what for them seems to be necessary.
So everything is possible. Great.

[stijn]

each use of the Raise Dead spell now makes a 20% decrease of the target unit’s maximal HP till the end of the combat

doesn't this make following raise dead spells even more powerfull?

[DaemianLucifer]

doesn't this make following raise dead spells even more powerfull?

True,but it will make the stack easier to kill as well.And I think you cannot cast raise dead after the health is reduced to a certain point.

Actually this is something I find rather cool. They are rebalancing things and they are going for original solutions. War Machines is a good example; they will make that skill even stronger with the addon because three new spells wills summon things that will be War Machines for game purposes.
First look and play shows that the resource balancing not only rebalances the game - it CHANGES the pace of the game. Completely.
To do this requires guts. However, most importantly it shows
that Nival will do whatever is necessary to make this game a superior game!
Think about it. They obviously have NO problems to change things completely. Look at the Ghosts from 8 HPs up to SIXTEEN. I mean, hell, I'd have guessed 12. But 16, that's massive. Resource demands, the same. They don't care for how this looks (guys, what did you think with version 1.0???), they just do what for them seems to be necessary.
So everything is possible. Great.

If I wanted to play a different game every two months,Id buy a new game,or install different mods,not patch the game.

[magritte2]

In some ways, Nival reminds me a bit of Paradox Entertainment. For those not familiar, Paradox is the developer behind the Europa Universalis/Hearts of Iron/Victoria/Crusader Kings family of games. They start with a fantastic basic game design--borrowed from their own Europa Universalis for Paradox, borrowed from NWC in Nival's case. They make some nice decisions to overlay that design. I think HOMM V has six interesting cohesive factions, the hero skill tree and town building trees are great, and although they're not always that useful, the unique racial abilities add to the uniqueness of the factions.

Unfortunately, the initial release of HOMM V, like typical Paradox games was seriously lacking in polish. The manual was laughable. Paradox actually often has extensive manuals, but they're chock full of interesting historical information and very, very short on explaining how the game works. The AI in Paradox games, especially in initial releases tends to be quite bad as well. But on the plus side, Paradox keeps plugging away and improving their games with subsequent patches--I think Crusader Kings has been overhauled almost beyond recognition over the past two years. Perhaps Nival will be similar. On the other hand, Paradox is a very small developer that makes niche-market games, whereas Nival has a lot larger budget, and shouldn't really have to operate this way. But maybe HOMM5 is their first really big market game--I don't know much about any of their previous games.

[Sir_Toejam]

one thing still making me unhappy are the cold bones/fireshield effects, which is still entirely worthless.

I tested it for a whole map and I think the most damage i ever saw it give was 12 points of damage. usually it was around 2-3.

Time to start poking around in the data files and see if I can find the code for that one.

[LordErtz]

If I wanted to play a different game every two months,Id buy a new game,or install different mods,not patch the game.

AMEN DL...I couldn't have summed it up any better than that.

[PhoenixReborn]

one thing still making me unhappy are the cold bones/fireshield effects, which is still entirely worthless.

I tested it for a whole map and I think the most damage i ever saw it give was 12 points of damage. usually it was around 2-3.

Time to start poking around in the data files and see if I can find the code for that one.

I discovered that the effect of those was to dispel phantom images even if you "miss".

[Jolly Joker]

If I wanted to play a different game every two months,Id buy a new game,or install different mods,not patch the game.

AMEN DL...I couldn't have summed it up any better than that.

Ah, so you rather want the game to stay as it is - which you don't like. Strange. Can it be that you actually only want to complain about everything concerning the game no matter what?

[Meandor]

Leave such things as massive changes in building costs to fans. Nival should work on bugs and balance*

*This is not balancing, i don`t know any serious developers who "balance" games changing them completely. They might have showed with this move that they have guts, but they also showed that they use drugs.

[Gezz]

They might have showed with this move that they have guts, but they also showed that they use drugs.

rofl

I'm with J. Joker. The game had its faults but was good and is getting better.